Jewish Heritage Europe

Calendar

Mar
21
Sat
The Duomo & The Great Synagogue: An Evening of Italian Culture @ JCC Los Gatos, California
Mar 21 @ 18:30 – 22:00
The Duomo & The Great Synagogue: An Evening of Italian Culture @ JCC Los Gatos, California | Los Gatos | California | United States

The Duomo & The Great Synagogue: An Evening of Italian Culture

An evening of Jewish and Florentine architecture, culture, music, and food.

• Informal talks about the history and architecture of two of Florence, Italy’s grandest and most iconic structures — the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral (the Duomo) and the Great Synagogue — by  Ross King, author of the national bestseller Brunelleschi’s Dome, and noted scholar Professor Francesco Spagnolo, Curator of The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley.

• Q&A session moderated by Gail Price, former Executive Director of The American Institute of Architects Santa Clara Valley Chapter.

•The San Jose Chamber players with Cantor Sharon Bernstein presenting both Jewish and Italian songs.

• Italian appetizers and ice cream.

Feb
23
Tue
Legacy of the Shtetl: Investigating Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian Borderlands @ Online Zoom event
Feb 23 @ 18:00 – 19:00
Legacy of the Shtetl: Investigating Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian Borderlands @ Online Zoom event | Bentonville | Arkansas | United States
The Legacy of the Shtetl: Investigating Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian Borderlands
with Dr Magdalena Waligórska, and Dr Natalia Romik, respondent, and with Prof François Guesnet, Chair 
 
Co-organized by the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies and  the UCL Institute of Jewish Studies
 
Magdalena Waligórska takes us on a journey to the post-1945 Polish-Ukrainian-Belorusian borderlands where she explores small towns which had a predominantly Jewish population before the Second World War and the Holocaust. Here, Jewish property both entirely fell under the control of the new ethnic majority and remained a “disinherited heritage” that continues to cause dissonance and psychological discomfort to its current “heirs.”
 
The unsettling presence of Jewish ruins, resurfacing human remains, walled-in objects, collapsing cellars, and the recycled tombstones constitutes an “intrusion of the past into the present” that, decades after the war, still demands action and results in different local responses.
 
The respondent, Natalia Romik, is an artist, urban historian, and architect from Warsaw who has undertaken similar but different explorations of the Jewish heritage in small Polish towns.
 
Jun
28
Mon
Belarus Jewish heritage conference @ Minsk and online
Jun 28 – Jun 30 all-day
Belarus Jewish heritage conference @ Minsk and online

The Belarusian-Jewish Cultural Heritage Center and The Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations at the University of Southampton are organizing the first international conference on ‘The history, culture and heritage of Jews in Belarus across the ages.’

The aim of the conference is to discuss the latest findings on all aspects of the history, culture and heritage of Jews in Belarus, including the emergence of a distinctive Belarusian-Jewish identity.

NOTE: The conference will be ‘hybrid’, allowing participants and audience to attend either on site if they can go to Minsk, or remotely, through the conference platform.

The conference will bring together specialists from Eastern Europe and other parts of the world to discuss the latest findings on all aspects of the history, culture and heritage of Jews in Belarus. 

There will be panels on art, pre-revolutionary history, ethnography, heritage, Holocaust, interwar period, language and literature. The keynote speakers are Professor Mikhail Krutikov and Dr Inna Gerasimova. There will also be round-tables about heritage and national identities in contemporary Belarus.

Click here for the conference web page

 

Oct
10
Sun
Zoymen 2021 @ Online
Oct 10 all-day
Zoymen 2021 @ Online

An online conference on two Sundays about Jewish identity and cultural heritage in Belarus, organized by TheTogether Plan within the context of the European Days of Jewish Culture. The Together Plan is engaged in various Jewish communal, heritage, and identity projects in Belarus, including organising a Jewish heritage route.

It calls Belarus “the unexplored and unknown root of modern day Ashkenazi Jewry.”

The conference “will be exploring hidden history, overcoming severe challenges and taking a look at modern day solutions.”

Click here to register, buy ticket, and see program

 

Oct
17
Sun
Zoymen 2021 @ Online
Oct 17 all-day
Zoymen 2021 @ Online

An online conference on two Sundays about Jewish identity and cultural heritage in Belarus, organized by TheTogether Plan within the context of the European Days of Jewish Culture. The Together Plan is engaged in various Jewish communal, heritage, and identity projects in Belarus, including organising a Jewish heritage route.

It calls Belarus “the unexplored and unknown root of modern day Ashkenazi Jewry.”

The conference “will be exploring hidden history, overcoming severe challenges and taking a look at modern day solutions.”

Click here to register, buy ticket, and see program

 

Nov
27
Sat
Extermination – Great Synagogue Grodno @ online - zoom, and on-site
Nov 27 @ 18:00 – 20:30
Extermination - Great Synagogue Grodno @ online - zoom, and on-site | Vilnius | Vilniaus apskritis | Lithuania

European Humanities University (EHU) and the Center for Belarusian Community and Culture in Vilnius will host a premiere presentation of “Extermination” — an audiovisual installation about the Great Synagogue of Grodno, which was constructed in the 16th century and was rebuilt many times after devastating fires. 

Kseniya Shtalenkova (lecturer in the Academic Department of Humanities and Arts at EHU, Philosophy PhD candidate) is the project curator and Viktoryia Bahdanovich (fourth-year student of the BA program in Visual Design) is the project production designer and executive producer.

 The “Extermination” audiovisual installation is a monologue on the history of the place as well as an individual experience of a person in time and space.

The installation has been created as a part of the project on “Preservation and Actualization of Former Synagogues in Belarus for the Benefit of Local Communities” by Stsiapan Stureika, Professor of Humanities and Arts at EHU. Project research conducted for the work on the installation was conducted with the participation of EHU students.

The presentation will be delivered in Russian with subtitles in English. 

Register by November 26.

Click here to register on Zoom (or for in-person attendance)

The event will be also streamed online via EHU’s Facebook page.

NOTE: you can attend the event physically at the Belarusian House (Vilniaus g. 20) by pre-registration at the same link to register on Zoom

Jan
12
Thu
The Architecture of the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam @ Online
Jan 12 @ 12:00 – 13:00
The Architecture of the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam @ Online

Dr. Pieter Vlaardingerbroek will present an illustrated talk live from Amsterdam on the architecture and interior of the 1675 Portuguese Synagogue (the Esnoga) in Amsterdam and the synagogue’s direct influence on the architecture of the 1763 Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island.

Pieter Vlaardingerbroek, Ph.D., is a leading expert on Dutch architecture and material culture. He is an architectural historian for the City of Amsterdam, having served in a similar position for the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. He is an Assistant Professor of Architectural History and Conservation at the University of Utrecht. Professor Vlaardingerbroek is the author of many articles and books and served as editor for the definitive volume on the Portuguese Sephardic synagogue, The Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, published by the City of Amsterdam in 2013.

There is no fee to participate, but reservations are required to receive the Zoom login information.

Click to register.

 

Aug
4
Fri
𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐫 (The Echo of the Synagogues) @ various synagogues
Aug 4 – Aug 8 all-day

This festival features concerts in the synagogues of five towns in western Romania:

The repertoire includes new compositions by the violinist and virtuoso Alexander Bălănescu, who also will perform.

PROGRAM:

Bălănescu’s Quartet & Emanuel Pusztai 🎻🎶
🕍 Monday, September 4th, at 7 PM | Neolog Synagogue in Arad
🕍 Tuesday, September 5th, at 7 PM | Cetate Synagogue in Timișoara
𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐚̆𝐥𝐚̆𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐮 (violin), 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 (violoncello) and Emanuel Pusztai (voice) 🎻🎶
🕍 Wednesday, September 6th, at 7 PM | Reșița’s Synagogue
🕍 Thursday, September 7th, at 5 PM | “Beit El” Synagogue in Caransebeș
🕍 Thursday, September 7th, at 8:30 PM | Neolog Synagogue in Lugoj
📌 Admission to the concerts is free, and no prior registration is required.
 
The festival is a project of the Pantograf Association, and a continuation of its previous programs  – Sound of Synagogues, Rhapsodies on Romanian Themes, and Synagogue Stories – “which aimed to document the stories of synagogues, raise awareness about the importance of these places of worship, and integrate them into a regional and national circuit by creating a connection between material and immaterial heritage.”
 
It is part of the national cultural programme “Timișoara – European Capital of Culture in 2023” and is funded through the Grow Timișoara 2023 programme, implemented by the Center for Projects Timișoara, with funds allocated from the state budget, through the budget of the Ministry of Culture. It also falls under the umbrella of the European Days of Jewish Culture (EDJC).
 
Arad, Romania. Inner dome of the Neolog Synagogue
Sep
12
Tue
Spain: Jewish Archaeology @ Aula Magna. Edificio Universitario San Pedro Mártir - Madre de Dios
Sep 12 – Sep 13 all-day
Spain: Jewish Archaeology @ Aula Magna. Edificio Universitario San Pedro Mártir - Madre de Dios | Toledo | Castilla-La Mancha | Spain

An international conference/workshop on: “Toledo in the management of the New Jewish Archaeology in Europe”.

Organised by the Sephardic Museum in Toledo, the conference falls within a research project that has among its tasks the dissemination of the important archaeological findings that have been produced in recent years in the area of ​​the Jewish quarter of Toledo, in addition to highlighting the city and the Spanish-Jewish and Sephardic heritage, nationally and internationally. The objective of the conference will be “not only to create a scientific space for the exchange of academic news at a local, national and European level, but also to highlight the singular and unique value of the city of Toledo within the archaeological map of Jewish heritage in Spain.”

Click here to see the program

Jan
14
Sun
Restoring Legacy: reclaiming the Brest-Litovsk Jewish cemetery @ online
Jan 14 @ 19:00 – 20:00
Restoring Legacy: reclaiming the Brest-Litovsk Jewish cemetery @ online

More than 80 years ago, the headstones that once stood in the Brest-Litovsk Jewish cemetery, in the south of Belarus, were desecrated and used for other purposes. More than 1200 headstones have been discovered over the last 20 years.  They will be used to create a stunning memorial.

The  Together Plan’s January 14th event will focus on this project.

How did the cemetery disappear?
What happened to the matzevot?
How did The Together Plan become involved?
What has been done so far and what are the plans for the future?
Where are the 1249 salvaged headstones at the moment?
How does this memorial play a pivotal role in Jewish history?
How will this support the functioning Jewish community in Brest today?

Click here to find the link to register

USA 11:00 PT / 14:00 ET / UK 19:00 / Israel 21:00

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